The Act of Writing
by HPFC
Summary: "The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter." - Edward Albee. ::Collaboration fic::
1. Stay Safe, Mate

**A/N**: So, hello! This collection is a response to a forum challenge at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt was _writing_. You can find links to the authors who contributed in the favourites list of this account.

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><p><strong>Title<strong>: Stay Safe, Mate****  
>Character claim<strong>**: James Potter I**  
>Summary<strong>: The Potter Plan. Prongs is giving in...but who can he trust with his family's lives?  
><strong>Author<strong>: xakemii  
><strong>Beta<strong>: RGBTheDuckie

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><p><strong><em>3 September 1981<em>**

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><p>Padfoot,<p>

Do you remember that conversation we had a few weeks ago? I know I yelled at you for being a tosser, but I was thinking about it the other day, and don't be a dick about it, but you're right.

Lily and Harry are too much to risk. I'll go with them, of course, but they need to be top priority, you got that, Sirius?

Come over later and we'll talk about the details.

— Prongs

PS: Use that pea-sized brain of yours and get rid of this letter.

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><p>Moony,<p>

I know you've been away on business, but I need you to come over later. Just apparate over for a few minutes. Only a few minutes and you can go back to whatever the hell it is that you're doing.

Lily says she'll have your hide if you don't make it, by the way.

— Prongs

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><p>Wormtail,<p>

My place this evening? There's business to discuss.

— Prongs

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><p><strong><em>5 September 1981<em>**

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><p>Moony,<p>

Lily's going to kill for you not turning up. Or answering any of our letters. It's been five months. Where the hell are you?

You obviously don't want to talk to us though, so I've promised Lily that this will be my last letter.

I hope you're okay, Moony. I suppose you don't know, but the twins were murdered yesterday. Molly's beside herself. Everyone's doing everything they can to help.

You should come back.

— Prongs

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><p><em><strong>7 September <strong><em>1981<em>****_

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><p>Padfoot,<p>

Have you figured out why Wormtail couldn't make it yet? He wasn't with that Muggle bimbo of his, was he?

Moony's out, by the way. He hasn't replied. I know we were great mates at Hogwarts; after all, we were the Marauders! But we're in a war now and with Lily and Harry, I'm not taking any chances. I'm sorry, Pads. But I've got to let him go and I need you to do that same.

Basically, it's either you or Wormtail.

— Prongs

PS: That was me asking you to be our Secret Keeper, just incase you didn't catch that. You're my brother, aren't you?

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><p><strong><em>15 September <strong><em>1981<em>**_**

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><p>Wormtail,<p>

Sirius told me you were back from Muggle London.

There's something we really need to talk about though, mate. I need your help.

— Prongs

PS: If you don't come this time, I will hang you by your balls.

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><p>Padfoot,<p>

Alright, alright. You were right again. When did you get so smart?

I've asked Wormtail to come over. Would you come too? You're better at explaining this than I am. Plus, you're a bit more 'convincing' if he's not so keen.

I guess after tonight I'll have to stop sending you these letters, won't I? So tonight will be the last of the details you get.

— Prongs

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><p><em><strong>20 September <strong><em>1981<em>****_

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><p>Padfoot,<p>

Yeah, it was meant to be the last letter. But I figured there was no harm in telling you that all systems are go.

Thanks for everything, Pads. Stay safe, will you? And after this is all done, we'll try find Moony. Assuming...well, yeah. So long as Moony is still the Moony we know. We'll look for him and then we'll be the Marauders again.

You, me, Wormtail and Moony.

It'll work out. I'll see you again when this shit's sorted itself out.

— Prongs

PS: Don't kill for doing this, but I had to. If anything happens...my will is enclosed. If you manage to lose that, there's another copy. Remember that snitch you caught back in second year? If something happens to this copy, find that snitch.

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><p><strong><em>24 September <strong><em>1981<em>**_**

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><p>Wormtail,<p>

Thanks, Wormy. You're a real mate.

— Prongs


	2. Letters from Luna

**Title**: Letters from Luna_  
><em>**Character claim**: Luna Lovegood**  
>Summary<strong>: Luna Lovegood shares the news of her impending marriage with her father, her friends and her old lover, but the most important message is for someone who'll never really read it.**  
>Author<strong>: Gamma Orionis**  
>Warning<strong>: Mention of non-canonical pairing

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><p><em>Sitting down to write letters was an easy task at first.<em>

Dear Daddy,

I'm writing this letter from Sweden, and I have something to tell you. Remember Newt Scamander? The author of that book about magical creatures that neglected to mention crumple-horned snorcacks? Well, his son is here in Sweden too, on the same expedition to look for crumple-horned snorcacks as I am. His name is Rolf, and he believes that it's very important to be open to the possibility that there are hundreds of magical creatures most wizards can't even begin to imagine. We've been spending a lot of time together over the last few months, and yesterday we decided that, since we're living together already, we ought to get married.

We'll be back in England for the wedding in June.

Be sure to feed the nargles,

Love,

Luna.

_Tie the first letter to the first owl's leg, then write the next one._

Dear Harry,

I'm going to get married in June, and I'd like you to be there. I'll be marrying Rolf Scamander, who is searching Sweden for crumple-horned snorcacks with me. We're going to be back in England on June first, and we'll tell you the wedding date then, but we'd really love it if you'd be Rolf's best man. Also, if you could ask, we'd like Ginny and Hermione for bridesmaids and Ron for a groomsman.

Hoping you, Ginny, Hermione and Ron are well,

Love,

Luna

_Give it to a second owl and let those two fly away. Those letters were easy. Now for the harder ones._

Dear Draco,

I'm sorry that I haven't written to you all this time. I've been in Sweden, researching crumple-horned snorcacks. I hope you've been well.

I'm getting married in June. His name is Rolf Scamander.

It's too bad that your parents wanted you to marry Astoria so much. I miss you quite dreadfully sometimes. But I'm sure you two are happy, and I'm going to be very happy with Rolf, so it isn't so bad, really.

Love,

Luna

_And the hardest one of all. Sit for a long time, staring at the parchment, wondering what to say. Choose what you really mean. No extra words. Just honesty._

Dear Mummy,

I miss you. I love you.

Love, Luna


	3. Ghost of the Past

**Title**: Ghost of the Past  
><strong>Character claim<strong>: Professor Cuthbert Binns (+ several students)  
><strong>Summary<strong>: Sedition? Propaganda? Muggle-praising? Certainly not. All Professor Binns wants to do is make sure his fifth-years pass their OWLs.  
><strong>Author<strong>: Ember Nickel

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><p><em>As you well know, this is the year you will take your O.W.L.s. Therefore, in addition to rigorously quizzing your understanding of topics we learn this year, I will also assign you certain review assignments to make sure your knowledge from your first four years of formal wizarding education is up to snuff. Remember, there is no practical exam—your entire mark will be based on your ability to write well-reasoned answers. Bear in mind, also, that some questions will ask your opinion. Mere regurgitation of facts—while highly desirable—is not all that is necessary for excellence. You must demonstrate deeper understanding of this all-important material.<em>

**Describe how the Order of Merlin changed over time.**

At first, the Order of Merlin was a group of wizards hand-selected by Merlin. Of course, after his Imprisonment, he lost the ability to choose new members. Because of this, the original members invited new ones.

By the time a century had passed since the Imprisonment, all of the members Merlin had chosen were dead, and the "second generation" of members was in charge. Because they couldn't always agree on who to choose, the system switched to having members vote on new candidates. This system lasted until the Gwynedd block were accused of corruption in the thirteenth century. After that, members had to prove their worth by performing "feats of valor" in honor of the Knights of the Round Table. The reformers who were angry at the Gwynedd block thought that Merlin would have wanted to base his order off a Muggle system because he had originally supported laws against Muggle-cursing.

Around the time the Ministry of Magic was founded people wanted to induct Gunhilda of Gorsemoor into the order. However, she couldn't do any feats of valor because she was a humpback and only had one eye. So people bullied the Order into letting the new ministry give out Orders for any reason. Since then, we have talked about "giving out" Orders of Merlin, instead of being inducted into the Order.

-Millicent Bulstrode

**From Merlin to Albus Dumbledore, many world-famous wizards have been born on the "sceptered isle." What factors made the country so important in global wizarding politics?**

"sceptered isle?" Merlin is from Britain. So is Dumbledore, I think.

-Gregory Goyle

**Compare and contrast Emator Shara and a contemporary of his, particularly in regard to their effects on society.**

Though remembered mainly in the footnotes of The Dark Arts Outsmarted, Chor Cruen had a larger impact on society by far, effectively increasing garlic tariffs while Shara caused a momentary and forgettable hubbub by catering to the panem et circenses attitude of wizarding society.

-Hermione Granger

In almost every respect Shara was inferior to Minnapet Morrison, who debuted in the same year as he did. Due to not being forced out of a job, Morrison played eight years longer for the Chudley Cannons, during which time she was involved in several dozen more victories and scored several hundred more goals. Although she was also dinged for more fouls, averaged over a per-game basis the difference between them is not important.

Shara was, however, probably the more important socially, due to him forcing the closure of a loophole that had previously allowed vampires to play top-flight Quidditch.

-Ron Weasley

**In your opinion, who has made the most important contributions to goblin rights in the last three centuries?**

Oswald Beamish. His persistent lobbying on behalf of the race led to Ministry policy changes in the 1900s, as well as increasing wizard-goblin cooperation in business fields such as Gringotts. In addition, Beamish's popular works such as The Metalworkers' Mettle has also greatly influenced public perception of goblins and paints them in a positive light. These contributions make Beamish an important pioneer.

-Lavender Brown

Willum Pulxlin, who killed Glog the Grumpy in the 1738 standoff. Goblin rumors of the brutal torture Glog was forced to undergo have made him a martyr and inspired future generations of goblins to incompetently agitate for rights that won't do them any good.

-Pansy Parkinson

Implying that a single individual can be credited with particular success is a sign of your myopic view as a (former) wizard. True understanding of goblin culture acknowledges the role of the collective, in particular, in events such as the monumental Gringotts strike of 1917. While Fankran Meirae (Fankran the Fat, according to biased wizarding sources) is vilified in wizarding literature as the leader of this process, it demonstrated the solidarity of many goblins.

-Hermione Granger

**Albus Dumbledore attacked Gellert Grindelwald fifty years ago, bringing an end to a war in which Britain had not played any significant part. In your opinion, why did he choose that time to attack?**

He didn't attack before then because he didn't want to.

-Gregory Goyle

Dumbledore was more opportunistic than he is celebrated for. He waited until 1945, not because he couldn't have defeated Grindelwald before then, but because he needed to wait until his army was weaker. If he'd fought Grindelwald much earlier, then even if he'd won, there would still be a large and well-organized army that could carry on in his absence. Because of wizarding Britain's isolation from the ongoing conflict, it would have been difficult to defeat that army.

By 1945, however, Grindelwald's army had very low morale after several deaths and many more injuries from Splinching. This only goes to show rule number one of wizarding warfare: Don't Apparate into Russia in the winter.

-Theodore Nott

It took him that long to post bail for his sketchy younger brother.

-Zacharias Smith

Although it's not stated directly, Bathilda Bagshot's A History of Magic(p.713 ff) strongly implies that Dumbledore was busy during the five-year period preceding the attack. Obviously, the Second Muggle World War was also ongoing, and due to wizards being such a small minority in the world, Dumbledore likely reasoned that protecting the vast number of Muggles subject to violence was a more pressing pursuit. Although many wizarding villages were easily protected against Muggle warfare, evacuating Muggles there proved impractical. Hence (Bagshot's endnotes imply) Dumbledore was forced to use more subtle ways of influencing events in Britain and Continental Europe. Once the tide had turned, he was free to go after Grindelwald directly.

-Justin Finch-Fletchley

**What has made the Statute of Secrecy so successful?**

If you kill Muggles they don't live to tell.

-Vincent Crabbe

Memory charms are surprisingly effective.

-Hermione Granger

As Mordicus Egg states in The Philosophy of the Mundane, Muggles are very accustomed to their nonmagical lives, and it's rarely worth the effort for them to follow up on any glimpses of the magical world they might stumble across. Perhaps knowing that there was an enchanting world they were, functionally and legally, barred from would only fuel resentment. This theory is not enough to explain a more general lack of curiosity, however. I would differ slightly from Egg's account by attributing resilience to Muggles. At least in modern Britain, most have been led to believe that phenomena have in general naturalistic (in context, non-magical) causes. This blind trust can prove misleading when they actually encounter magic, but many Muggles are content to dismiss it and assume they are merely lacking information as to its "true" cause.

This theory has broader implications, of course. If Muggles are truly as adept at shrugging off odd phenomena or making sense of them to themselves, there might be little to lose by repealing the Statute. Given that—at least in Britain—witch-burning is a decidedly rare modern pastime, it appears likely that should the legislation be repealed, Muggles would at first be shocked but then come to think little of the existence of magic. This explains some of the Pinkstone faction's rationale in advocating repeal.

-Terry Boot

Love.

As trite as it sounds, having exceptions to the rule makes people more likely to follow it. Obviously, some exceptions are classified as "practicality"—the parents of Muggle-born wizards should know about the world of magic even if they won't be directly interacting with it. However, there are many more exceptions that come when a magician and a Muggle have such a close relationship that hiding one's magic could be considered so ridiculous as to violate the spirit of the law (even though many magicians, for individual reasons, do not always take advantage of these exceptions immediately). Knowing that this option can eventually take effect allows magicians to feel like the law is less stringent or worth breaking; as an additional bonus, it encourages them to wait for trusting, meaningful relationships rather than being flighty.

-Seamus Finnegan

**Choose any department of the Ministry for Magic and evaluate how it changed under the Bagnold administration.**

The Department of Mysteries may have changed under the Bagnold administration, but nobody has the foggiest.

-Harry Potter

Late in Millicent Bagnold's administration, the Muggle world was shaken by the fall of communism in eastern Europe. Although they did not have to do as much as their Muggle counterparts, the Department of International Magical Cooperation did need to change to deal with this. Communism had some impact in the wizarding world, where currency was generally being devalued, but ultimately the DIMC was not called upon to support their foreign counterparts very much. However they did work alongside other western European Ministries to create fair exchange rates that would work for different countries. In addition they needed to revise some rules on nationality (as it affected eligibility for international Quidditch tournaments, etc.) Although the existence of the Soviet Union did not wind up affecting wizarding nationalities, the rules on wizard-muggle offspring classification, and Squibs, etc. did need to be revised. Because of the war against pureblood ideology that had concluded under Bagnold, wizards in Britain were careful to downplay the importance of blood status for anything except clarifying rules so Muggle-borns could understand the laws just as well as pureblooded wizards.

-Justin Finch-Fletchley

During the 1980s when Millicent Bagnold was Minister, the Department of Magical Transportation experienced many complaints about the Floo Network. In particular, there began to be several novel forms of fireplaces in houses, including electric fireplaces that didn't really burn fire. While some inventions were done by wizards messing around with flames on purpose, many more were Muggle-created houses in which wizards lived (perhaps mixed wizard-Muggle families). Since it was unusual to connect Muggle houses to the Floo Network, there was some public outcry about how to make sure children too young for Apparition could get around on an equal footing. Eventually the Floo Network Authority enforced a ban on connecting electric fireplaces to the Floo Network, but began adult classes for Side-Along Apparition in order to ensure that wizard parents had an effective way to quickly move their children out of new Muggle-built houses.

-Seamus Finnegan

At the end of the Bagnold administration, the Department of Magical Games and Sports was very much like it was at the beginning. There was little difference between them. However there was still some change in between. This was sparked because of the Falklands War, a mostly-Muggle conflict between Britain and Argentina. Although not a lot happened besides a bunch of people getting killed, it caused a lot of national pride in the UK. In the Ministry, the Muggle-born wizard James Door tossed around ideas about more international leagues, including an all-Commonwealth Quidditch league (with lots of Portkeys). Although his ideas were voted down, he sparked a few years of very creative ideas in the department. However most of them, like Billywig Darts, didn't really work out.

-Dean Thomas

The Department for the "Regulation and Control" of Magical Creatures remained in stasis during the Bagnold years. In late 1981, before carrying out the sham trial of Sirius Black, there were substantive Ministry discussions about moving the Office of Misinformation (charged with covering up the worst magical catastrophes to the Muggle world) into the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, perhaps in recognition that the violence wrought by humans is far more devastating than that caused by other organisms. However, this movement eventually stalled, leaving animals wrongly portrayed as the worst threats to wizard secrecy and Muggle safety.

-Hermione Granger

The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes did not change very much under Bagnold. In late 1981, people discussed having the Office of Misinformation (which is a part of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures) move into the DMAC. However, this didn't ever actually happen.

-Ron Weasley

In 1980, Millicent Bagnold became the Minister for Magic. By this time the war with You-Know-Who had been going on for about ten years. The Aurors in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had been working very hard to catch the Death Eaters. But late in the war, they were given new powers—they could kill rather than capture Death Eaters. Several Death Eaters were killed during this part of the war. This was important because it reduced the number of fighters that You-Know-Who had. Also, it was a sign that the Ministry took the threat seriously. They knew that they were in the middle of a war and might even need to kill people, but they decided it was important enough to try. Ultimately, I think this was a good decision because it reminded people of the threat they faced but also showed them that the entire wizarding community was serious about fighting back. Because of brave Aurors who fought the Death Eaters, wizards and witches were able to enjoy many years of peace.

-Neville Longbottom


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